


Three Times She Didn't Mean It (And One Time I Did)

by lexisbrumback



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Betty Cooper Deserves Better, Dark, Dark Betty Cooper, F/M, Minor Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Murder, Serial Killers, don't worry the serial killer isn't betty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:41:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23713798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexisbrumback/pseuds/lexisbrumback
Summary: When Betty's 'best friend' is harming those close to her, she knows she has to take action. But how? All she knows is that action must be taken, before she herself is hurt in the end. And she lives by that.(I cannot write a summary for this specific oneshot without giving away the entire plot, sorry please give it a chance.)
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Three Times She Didn't Mean It (And One Time I Did)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm new to the AO3 community, and this is my first work! Be gentle please :). Also, this is meant to be a bit confusing at first, just keep reading!

One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine;

There are ten things you need to know. Of these ten things, you must understand that there are:

Five names you need to remember, in the four moments you need to forget three words said two times, one life ruined.

I regret nothing. I regret everything. I regret. You asked for a story. I've got one to tell. Listen carefully- there are ten things you need to know (five names, four moments, three words, two times, one life).

1\. I've always hated numbers. Pity that I've been reduced to nothing more than a string of black markings on white paper, when before I was nothing less than an ordinary girl with a slow brain but a quick mind and a peculiar interest in the sky. The universe is infinite, the stars drawn in simple pictures across a velvet backdrop. The universe is beautiful; humans are not.

2\. Veronica existed on some plane of existence where most of us may never venture - she saw the world through her own eyes. She was extraordinary. And those extraordinary ones so often die young. Some would call it inevitable.

3\. There was a river close to our neighborhood, just a few minutes down a back road. We used to walk along its rocky edge, daring each other to go just that much further away from the safety of the riverbank, where rushing rapids could wrap icy fingers around our ankles and drag us under, there one moment, gone the next. That was before, when we were young. After, we grew up. That was the first mistake.

4\. The first time was loud. She screamed. I cried. We both ran, sneakered feet pounding the concrete, dust coating the sticky air behind us. She turned to me then, tear stained cheeks on tanned skin, and said, "Please don't tell my mom. I didn't mean it."

I nodded. I didn't mention the unconscious boy we'd left behind at the convenience store to my mother that night. Or any night after. But I thought about it. And I wondered why I didn't stop her. And I hurt every moment after, with every remembered punch and kick. And I felt in those moments that I hated Veronica, for what she did to Archie that summer night.

5\. She was a study of silver and black, smooth silk hugging round curves. Her smile held the glint of a knife.

6\. We sat shivering on her back porch steps. Above, the stars were twinkling with all the knowledge of eternity. I draped a blanket over her shoulders. She didn't thank me. Instead, she whispered, "I didn't mean it. I thought it would be fine. I thought we would be fine." I had told her not to get in that car. I had told her Jughead had been drinking, that he wouldn't make good decisions, that she had to protect him. He had been my best friend, almost my boyfriend. I got up and left. The second time was dark, sinister. It held the promise of what was yet to come.

7\. We entered high school. The second mistake.

8\. The third time was hot. It burned. It twisted and sizzled and sparked with years if slowly built up anger, thousands of seconds of mistrust, fear disguised as friendship. "Maybe if you were a better friend, you would recognize when I'm upset!" I had remarked to Veronica. "Maybe if you were a better sister, Polly wouldn't be dead!" She had retorted back. It hung in the air. It was heavy. The third time was hot, and it was heavy. "Betty, oh my god. I didn't mean it. I-" Veronica's response lacked empathy, even if that was what she had meant. It stung. "I hate you. You've ruined my life. And I'll repay the favor ten times over, Veronica."

9\. She laughed. Her third and final mistake.

10\. I didn't kill Veronica Lodge. The water did. I brought her there, yes. I wanted to watch the fear eat away at her perfect bronze skin, chip away at each carefully placed piece of deception.

There was only one person who had ever really known Veronica Lodge. One who had watched her beat a kid within an inch of his life because she was in love with him, but he didn't feel the same way about her. Only one person had felt the bone-shattering loss of her best friend almost boyfriend after he had sworn to be safe. Only one person had to watch her sister pull the trigger because she didn't want her sister's friend learning who she was.

I knew all her of dirty secrets, all of her terrible truths. They were my arsenal, and I intended to fire them out, one by one, until she was nothing more than a pathetic, shaking mess of worn out memories and the idea of what she once was.

"Betty, why the fuck are we out here? It's freezing. I told you already, I'm sorry. I know I'm a bitch and a complete fucking idiot and I know that nothing will ever be the same. Ever. I'm sorry. Can we please go home?"

Betty shrugged, her face a masked. Cold. Impassable. "I was just feeling sentimental. Thought it would be a nice touch."

"To what? What the fuck are you talking about? I only agreed to come out here for, like, twenty minutes. I didn't plan for some trek through the woods." She was met with silence. She didn't expect an answer anyway. 

Snow crunched beneath their feet, the fluffy kind that drifted gently across the frozen forest floor. The river came into view, an icy vein cutting through the trees, familiar in its winding path. Betty slowed to a stop as they neared the river's edge, staring into the black depths just visible under the layer of ice covering the water. Veronica stopped next to her, shivering. 

She, too, was trembling, but not from the cold. 

"Alright, very sentimental. I get it. We used to be friends. I did some bad shit, said some stupid shit, and now we're not friends. And fuck, maybe I'd like you back as a friend, but I know I don't deserve you and I know you hate me and-"

"You're right."

Veronica stopped talking.

In the moments before, Betty was wondering if she would be able to do it. In the moments after, she wondered why she hadn't done it sooner. Nothing had changed, but nothing would ever be the same again.

The gun was cold in her hands. She couldn't control the trembling, but Veronica didn't seem to notice.

"I do hate you. You killed Polly. You killed Jughead."

Betty's voice wavered on her sister's name. It broke on her best friend's name. 

"You're not going to fucking kill me Betty. What the fuck." Veronica was always extraordinary. To remain calm in the face of death. To cling to an old, fractured bond of friendship, glowing bright in the darkness. But you could see the panic in her eyes.

"Polly felt like she didn't have a choice. Jughead didn't have a choice- you took it from him. Archie didn't have a choice. I'm giving you a choice."

Confusion crossed Veronica's features. She didn't remember the boy's name, the one from behind the supermarket. She forgot it quickly after that hot summer's night. Betty, however, remembered everything.

"We never made it past that tree. How far do you think we could go, now that we're so much older?" The threat in her voice was imminent, her intentions clear.

The river or the gun.

"You can't be serious. You won't fucking shoot me. Fuck you."

Betty shot her in the foot.

She meant every word she was saying.

When the ice broke, Veronica went down silently. She didn't put up a fight. It was like she had given up before her bloody foot had even touched the ice. Her face had been turned away from Betty, but she noticed she looked up, just before she went under. As though she wanted to see one beautiful thing before it was over, before everything was pitch black and choking cold.

Betty thought she would have chose the gun. Betty wouldn't have killed her.

She sat on the ground and wailed, tears streaming down her cheeks, wondering how they didn't freeze on their way down.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments/feedback are very much appreciated from this girly :).


End file.
